How to modify child support or spousal support in Virginia

Sources last checked: 3 November 2026. Information only, not legal advice. The Cusp is not a law firm.

Virginia divorce kit How child support is calculated Spousal support in Virginia Legal aid in Virginia After your divorce

The short version

In Virginia, a court can change a child support order under Code of Virginia section 20-108 and a spousal support order under section 20-109. Either parent can start a child support change, and either party can ask to change spousal support. The most important rule is timing: “No support order may be retroactively modified”. A change can reach back only to the date notice of your petition was given to the other side. For child support in a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, the official form is the Motion to Amend or Review Order (form DC-630, 10/23). We did not find an official form for changing spousal support in a circuit court divorce case.

What the petition can ask for

Child support: section 20-108 lets the court revise a decree about the maintenance of children “as the circumstances of the parents and the benefit of the children may require”. The petition “shall set forth the reasons for the relief sought”. A parent can file, and so can the court on its own, a probation officer or the Department of Social Services.
Spousal support: section 20-109(A) says that on petition of either party the court may “increase, decrease, or terminate the amount or duration of any spousal support” that accrues later, “as the circumstances may make proper”.
Spousal support with a set end date: under section 20-109(B), a petition to change an award “for a defined duration” must be “filed within the time covered by the duration of the award”. The court may change it on finding a material change in circumstances “not reasonably in the contemplation of the parties” when the award was made, or that an event the court expected during the award, and that was significant to it, did not happen through no fault of the person asking. Subsection (B) applies only to cases begun on or after 1 July 1998.

What else you file

Virginia has no single list that we could find. These are the items our sources name.

Motion to Amend or Review Order (DC-630): the Virginia Judicial System’s self-help page lists it among its custody, visitation and child support forms. The form asks for the date of the order, what the order requires, the changes you request and your reasons, and it includes a notice of hearing and a service section that the clerk and serving officer complete. The court system’s own Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court manual (Rev. 6/24) says support motions “filed directly with the clerk’s office” use this form.
Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (DC-637): listed on the same self-help page. The manual says it is used to calculate the guideline amount.
Copy of the order you want changed. The form refers to the order and has a place to attach it.
Spousal support in a circuit court divorce case: the manual says circuit courts and juvenile and domestic relations district courts have concurrent jurisdiction over spousal support, and that a support order referred from a circuit court limits the district court to the authority in the referral order. We read no official form for a spousal support modification in a circuit court, so ask the clerk of the court that entered your decree.

What the statutes say

The wording below is a plain-language summary of the Code of Virginia as shown on the General Assembly’s Legislative Information System on 3 November 2026, with short quotations. We read sections 20-108, 20-108.1, 20-108.2 and 20-109 in full.

No retroactive change, section 20-108: “No support order may be retroactively modified”, but it can be modified for a period when a petition is pending, “from the date that notice of such petition has been given” to the responding party. The same section lets a service member whose petition rests on a deployment have it expedited on the docket.
Guideline amount, section 20-108.2(A): there is a “rebuttable presumption” that the amount produced by the guidelines is the correct child support. To depart from it the court must make “written findings in the order” that the guidelines would be “unjust or inappropriate in a particular case”, using the factors in section 20-108.1.
Incarceration, section 20-108.1: a party’s “incarceration for 180 or more consecutive days shall be a material change in circumstances” on which child support may be modified. The same section says that amendments to it are not retroactive and are not themselves a basis for a material change in circumstances.
Shared custody, section 20-108.2: where support was set on the shared custody formula and a parent consistently fails to use the custody time the award assumed, there is a rebuttable presumption that the support award should be modified.
Cohabitation, section 20-109(A): on “clear and convincing evidence” that the spouse receiving support has been “habitually cohabiting with another person in a relationship analogous to a marriage” for a year or more, the court must terminate spousal support, unless a contract or stipulation says otherwise or the spouse proves termination “would be unconscionable”.
Contracts and stipulations, section 20-109(C): for contracts signed on or after 1 July 2018, a request to modify spousal support cannot be denied solely because of the contract’s terms unless it expressly states the support is “non-modifiable”.
Death and remarriage, section 20-109(D): unless a contract or stipulation says otherwise, spousal support ends on the death of either party or the remarriage of the spouse receiving it. The recipient has an affirmative duty to notify the payor of a remarriage immediately.
Retirement, section 20-109(E) and (F): the payor spouse reaching full retirement age “shall be considered a material change in circumstances” for a modification request. The court then decides whether to change or end support, considering listed factors, and an order granting or denying a request must include “written findings and conclusions” (subsection (G)).

Notice, service and hearing

Notice: section 20-108 ties any change to the date notice of the petition was given, and the manual says the terms of a modified order may be retroactive “only to the date of the filing” of the motion or, if earlier, to the date a Department of Social Services support order was delivered to the sheriff or process server for service. The manual and the statute are worded differently, so ask the clerk which date applies to you.
Service: the DC-630 includes a notice of hearing signed by the clerk and a service section with personal service, delivery to a family member aged 16 or older at the usual home, or posting on the front door. The manual also says the clerk issues notice on the motion or a summons for service by the sheriff.
Through the state child support agency (child support only): the manual says the Division of Child Support Enforcement “may initiate a review of any support order”. If it finds a material change in circumstances, it sends the court a proposed modified order, and either party may ask for a hearing. If nobody asks “within thirty days”, the court enters the modified order or sets a hearing. We read this in the manual and did not read the statute it cites.
Receiving services: the manual says a person receiving child support services or public assistance cannot be denied the right to file a motion to modify.

Before you file

Court staff cannot give legal advice. See legal aid in Virginia for free or low-cost help, or the Virginia divorce kit for the wider process.
Timing matters: because a change cannot reach back before notice of your petition, file as soon as your circumstances change.
The DC-630 is dated 10/23 and the manual is marked Rev. 6/24. Check that you have the current version before you file.
This page does not state a filing fee or service fee. No official source we read states an amount.
Child support amounts follow the state guidelines. See how child support is calculated in Virginia and spousal support in Virginia. For other changes after a divorce, see After your divorce.

What we could not confirm

A form for spousal support in a circuit court. We found none in the sources we read.
The general threshold for child support. Section 20-108 says “circumstances of the parents and the benefit of the children”. The statutes we read refer to a “material change in circumstances” in specific situations but do not define it generally. We read no court opinions, so we do not say how judges apply it.
Arrears. We read no Virginia section on reducing or forgiving unpaid support beyond the no-retroactive-modification rule in section 20-108.
The statute on child support agency reviews (section 63.2-1921, cited in the manual). We did not read it.
Filing and service fees and any deadline for serving the other party.
Local practice. We did not read any individual court’s procedures.
Other spousal support sections. We did not read sections on how support is first set (20-107.1) beyond what section 20-109 says about it.

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